Favorite Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Healthy’d-Up

The holidays are fast approaching and that means it’s time to start baking holiday cookies! Nothing beats the delicious aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies wafting through the entire house. I’ve been on a health kick the last few years and trying to eat a healthful diet full of vegetables and fruits, but I admit I have a serious weakness when it comes to cookies. I love all types of cookies, but the traditional chocolate chip variety is still my favorite.

This is our family’s absolute favorite Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookie recipe. They satisfy a serious cookie craving, but are healthy enough that I make these quite often for our family to enjoy. This recipe is adapted from the Choc-Oat-Chip Cookies recipe on Quaker Oats website. The original recipe is quite tasty, but if you know me then you know I’ve made some healthier substitutions including reducing the sugar, substituting whole wheat flour for white flour, and removing some of the butter. This may sound like some major changes, but I assure you they really are super tasty and this is coming from a real cookie monster!

We like to bake up a big double batch of this recipe and freeze half of the baked cookies to enjoy later. The only bad part is how quickly all the cookies disappear! Even the frozen ones, because I even like to eat them straight out of the freezer, although they are even better if you microwave them for 20 seconds first. If you need a tasty dessert on short notice, simply grab the cookies you need out of the freezer and reheat in the microwave or oven for a warm and homemade treat...so good!



Tip: Sometimes we split the batter into a second bowl before adding the chocolate chips. Then we add chocolate chips to one bowl and add raisins and cinnamon to the other bowl. This way we get two types cookies from one recipe!




Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Recipe yields about 5 dozen cookies

Ingredients
¼ pound (1 stick) butter, softened
4 Tablespoons of Canola Oil
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ¾ cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt (optional)
2 ½ cups old fashioned oats, uncooked
2 cups (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
1. Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy and add the canola oil while beating. Add eggs, milk and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda and salt; mix well. Add oats, chocolate chips and nuts; mix well.

2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Time Saving Tip: We recently upgraded to a new cookie scoop, which makes scooping out the batter so much easier and more efficient. Best of all, the cookies are uniform and bake evenly. See our review of the OXO Good Grips cookie scoop HERE!

3. Bake 10 to 11 minutes for a chewy cookie or 12 to 13 minutes for a crisp cookie. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.
a. Note that these cookies don’t expand much, so you can fit about 23 of them on a single cookie sheet – saving some baking time!



















Happy Holiday Baking!